The Philadelphia 76ers have been an absolute disaster during the 2024-25 season, currently sitting well outside the playoff line as the campaign comes to an end at 22-43. The 76ers are dealing with a plethora of injuries at the current juncture, with Paul George, Joel Embiid, and Tyrese Maxey all currently out of the lineup, not that the team was performing particularly well when they were all healthy.
The 76ers' general manager is Daryl Morey, who has long been known in basketball circles for his unorthodox approach to team building. Recently, Morey revealed that he and the 76ers employ artificial intelligence to help them make decisions, per Pablo Torre Finds Out on X.
“We absolutely use models as a vote in any decision and how much of that decision depends on how much the assumptions behind the models don't change, and their past success rate,” said Morey. “So if you have a highly successful model for picking draft picks… then the models get a lot of weight in those decisions.”
Morey then referenced the 76ers' use of LLM (Large Language Model) artificial intelligence models in particular examples of the team's willingness to experiment with the technology.
It is broke, so fix it
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Injured Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid during a timeout in the fourth quarter against the Golden State Warriors at Wells Fargo Center
Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
The 76ers may want to rethink their methodology for roster building if artificial intelligence is what led them to this disaster of a 2024-25 season. In fairness to Morey and his staff, they did appear to find a diamond in the rough this past draft with guard Jared McCain, who was having an excellent rookie season prior to going down with a season ending injury.
However, beyond that, there was next to nothing to be optimistic about regarding the 76ers this season. The Paul George contract is looking like it will be one of the worst commitments in modern NBA history, and Joel Embiid's health is continuing to deteriorate on the wrong side of 30. Even Tyrese Maxey has had trouble staying on the court over the last couple of seasons.
It's unclear what avenues the 76ers have to try to navigate out of their current mess, but they'll likely want to consider using real human minds to figure out their next steps.